Dreamforce ‘24 may be over, but yesterday was every Salesforce Admin’s favorite day – Admin Keynote day! Don’t fear if you couldn’t attend; you can catch up on Salesforce+.
In this post, I’ll dive into the announcements and features you need to know about from the Admin Keynote at Dreamforce ‘24. Let’s get started!
The Salesforce Admin Keynote
This year’s session was celebrating ten years of #AwesomeAdmins! Over this time, the role of the Salesforce Admin has changed a lot, and admins have had to keep up. Technology is moving fast, and the Salesforce platform is moving even faster – we’re already in the third wave of the AI revolution.
It’s definitely a challenging time to be an admin, with more responsibilities and demands coming from all sides. It was nice for this to be acknowledged by Salesforce themselves.
When you look at some of the stats that show the number of apps created or custom permission sets, it starts to become clear why many of us have been feeling a tad burned out.
While we may be feeling the struggle to keep up and do it all, there is also a real sense of excitement around the future and what some of these new features will mean for us over the next few years.
Now, without further ado, let’s jump into the announcements and features showcased in the Dreamforce Admin Keynote.
1. Agentforce for Salesforce Admins
The way we build on the Salesforce platform – and the role of admins – is undergoing a fundamental shift. Enter Agentforce.
So, what does Agentforce mean for Salesforce Admins? Agentforce transforms low-code development by introducing AI-powered Agents that can tackle problems you didn’t even know existed. The best part? These Agents are built right into the Salesforce platform you already know and love, seamlessly integrating with features like Flow and the existing security model.
I have a lot I could say about Agentforce, but I will save it for some deep dives coming soon…
2. Salesforce Foundations
Salesforce Foundations is an exciting, free* feature set that brings together the latest AI-powered tools for sales, service, marketing, and more – all wrapped in a sleek, updated interface. It’s designed to give you a taste of just how powerful AI can be when all these products work together, plus you’ll get early access to Agentforce!
*Free for Sales and Service Cloud users with Enterprise licenses or higher (though some features have limits).
To get started, simply go to the “Your Account” app or reach out to your Account Executive. Just eSign a ‘zero-dollar’ contract, and you’re all set!
3. Data Cloud
One of the key messages seems to be that Data Cloud is underpinning many of the new features and functionality. Data Cloud connects multiple sources of information and enables you to display this data within Salesforce using clicks, not code.
It’s certainly powerful and impressive, but it leads me to question: what happens to businesses, orgs, and admins without Data Cloud? If so much of the new functionality relies on it, will we get left behind without it? How do we create a business case to justify the cost? These are the things I hope Salesforce will help us with over the next 12 months, or else we risk the AI revolution becoming a battle between the haves and have-nots…
4. User List View
The User List View has a new enhanced mode in Winter ‘25 which gives it a modern UI and allows you to configure the list view exactly the same as you would any other list view in Salesforce. View, sort, filter, and modify records without navigating away from the list view.
This is an announcement I can truly get behind because all of us will benefit from this – no additional purchase needed.
5. New Lightning UI
Salesforce is gradually introducing a new design for Lightning Experience. The new design makes it easier to navigate Salesforce with streamlined icons, better spacing, and quick, at-a-glance views. The aim is to help users move quickly and easily from one task to the next without feeling overwhelmed. Clear visual cues, like colors and button states, make it simple to see what’s important and reduce mistakes (that’s the theory anyway – we all know users can be quite unpredictable in how they use things!).
In addition, the new design boosts performance by optimizing the code for faster load times on all devices – presumably to make things lightning fast!
On a more serious note, the new designs are also more accessible, following guidelines to support people of all abilities and neurodiverse needs.
6. Dynamic Highlights Panel
The Dynamic Highlights Panel allows you to dynamically display fields in the highlights panel of your Lightning record page, focusing your users on the most important fields. The Dynamic Highlights Panel can replace the compact layout and old highlights panel on your record pages.
Using the Dynamic Highlights Panel, you can add up to 12 fields, and these fields can be filtered based on the criteria you determine. For each Dynamic Highlight Panel, one primary field has to be selected, and it is recommended to keep it as the record’s name since this will be the header.
You can also configure the Dynamic Highlights Panel for the mobile app, granting further customization to the mobile record pages.
7. Email Actions
If you’ve ever wondered if Salesforce prioritizes your ideas and votes in the IdeaExchange, you’ll be pleased to know the answer is a resounding yes. In the past year, Salesforce has delivered 48.6K IdeaExchange points!
In particular, during the Admin Keynote, they highlighted that they:
- Increased the email action recipient limit from 5 to 150.
- Added BCC and CC capabilities.
- Will add email attachment capabilities (coming soon).
Summary
Well, that’s a wrap on the unmissable admin announcements you need to know from Dreamforce ’24! What was your favorite? Were there any announcements you were hoping for that didn’t happen? Let us know in the comments!
Looking for more great Dreamforce ‘24 content? Check out the top announcements from the main keynote you need to know.